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Record 2015 CES Crowd Leads To 2016 Attendance Cap

ARLINGTON, VA. — Gary Shapiro, president/CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), announced in a series of tweets last week that verified attendance for the 2015 International CES reached a record 176,676 industry professionals, with 48,833 coming from outside of the U.S., and going forward show attendance will be capped. Other records were also set:

• Exhibitors topped 3,600 for the first time, filling more than 2.23 million net square feet of exhibit space.
• A record 6,952 media members and industry analysts attended, generating 703,602 mentions of #CES2015 during the show, with 7.51 billion total potential Twitter impressions.
• There were 153 countries represented at the show.

While a robust attendance is a sign of success, CEA, concerned with capacity issues, will enact enhanced credentialing procedures and tighter qualification criteria for the 2016 International CES to cap attendance at 176,000, or close to a level comparable to the 2015 CES.

“With the growth of the consumer technology industry and the parallel growth of the International CES comes an increase in the qualified registrant base for our show. While these individuals are qualified industry professionals, we are reaching space capacity and simply can’t accommodate every qualified individual to our show,” said Karen Chupka, CEA senior VP, International CES and corporate business strategy. “We take seriously our efforts to make sure CES attendees have a positive experience. Enhanced credentialing procedures will enable us to ensure that qualified attendees can participate in our show and conduct business while providing a high-quality experience for all. These efforts also will allow us to improve some of the logistical and operational challenges that come with producing and attending such a large event.”

New registrants or previous registrants who did not attend the 2014 or 2015 CES will be subject to new enhanced credentialing and tighter qualification criteria. This means that although individuals may have qualified for registration in previous years, they must resubmit credentials to qualify for the 2016 CES.

A new registration fee structure will also be implemented:

More details on 2016 CES policies and procedures can be found at CESweb.org.